Republican Senate aides predict White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales will win easy confirmation as attorney general, perhaps as early as Inauguration Day. Gonzales endured over six hours of testimony on January 6 for his role in setting Bush Administration policies on detained terrorists. An easy confirmation for Gonzales-the lone second-term Bush nominee to face any opposition-may mean Senate Democrats are keeping their powder dry for the mother of all confirmation battles over whomever Bush names to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court when cancer-stricken Chief Justice William Rehnquist retires.
